中文摘要：

文本就是以某种载体保存的能够表达意义的文字或符号。因此，文本是由两部分构成的，一部分是表达意义的文字或符号，一部分是保存文字或符号的载体。载体是文本存在的形式，文字或符号是文本的意义，只有二者结合在一起，才构成文本。只要能够保存表达意义的文字或符号，任何材料都可以成为文本的载体。但是没有载体，则不能形成文本。由于文本是一种物质形态，因此文学不是一种意识形态，而是一种物质形态。总体而言，文本有三种基本形态：脑文本、物质文本和电子（数字）文本。脑文本是一种特殊的生物形态，是人的大脑以记忆形式保存的对事物的感知和认识。在文字符号被创造出来之前，人类文明曾经产生过丰富的具有文学特征的脑文本，如神话、民间史诗、传说故事、历史叙事等。脑文本就是口头文学的文本，但只能以口耳相传的方式进行复制而不能遗传。因此，除了少量的脑文本后来借助物质文本被保存下来之外，大量的具有文学性质的脑文本都随其所有者的死亡而永远消失湮灭了。

英文摘要：

Text refers to the original words or symbols that convey meaning in certain forms. As such, text is composed of communicable words or symbols and the carrier that could store and display words or symbols. While the carrier is the form in which text exists, words and symbols are the spring of a text＇s meaning. Only when these two elements are complete, it is possible for a text to come into being. Any materials can act as carriers of text so long as they have the function of recording words and symbols. Yet without carriers, there would be no text. It is in such a sense that literature could be understood as a mateiial form rather than a reflection of ideology. Generally speaking, text appears in three basic forms of brain text, material text and electronic （digital） text. Brain text, in its biological form, preserves human beings＇ experience of perception and cognition through memory. Before the invention of written symbols, there appeared a wide array of brain texts with literary characteristics, such as myth, heroic epics, folk tales, and historical narratives. Brain text is the prototype of the text of oral literature, yet it is not hereditary and can only be passed down orally from one generation to another. In such a case, most of the brain texts with literary characteristics are lost to the world with the death of their owners and only a few are preserved in the form of material text.